A sock manufacturer will produce socks for your brand that meet the function, design and fit you want for your product. You can find several large and small sock manufacturers that do private label manufacturing. A few examples include the American company Darn Tough Vermont which has been making high-performance socks for specific end use for more than 40 years and provides custom sock wholesale for companies like Smartwool, Feetures, Allbirds, and others.
Once you’ve determined the function and design of your socks, a professional product designer can help you create digital files that will need to be sent to a factory for production. Once your files have been transferred, the factory will do a step called pattern coding. This process converts your vector-based sock design into a bitmap file that the knitting machines can read. Each pixel in the bitmap represents one stitch of your sock.
The sock “tubes” created by the knitting machines are then inspected for quality and seaming processes are applied. The number of seams is limited for more comfortable socks and to prevent rubbing from bulky seams. This may be done manually or by automated linkers.
Some sock factories have their own in-house linking and sewing machinery, while other will outsource this step to specialists who are skilled at these jobs. Once the linking and seaming is completed, the socks will undergo a boarding process to keep them soft and clean. The left and right socks will be paired together and the pairs will be ready to be private labelled with your brand details. socks manufacturer